Trump: I must meet Putin — now. If he won’t play ball, sanctions hit. Putin’s tired of war. Zelensky? Tough to deal with. Delegating peace doesn’t work.
So if Trump finally steps in, hard and direct, and gets the deal — he’ll stand above all. Or maybe Putin’s has played him. 0/
Trump: I have a very good relationship with Putin. We have to get together fast. We'll probably schedule it up.
I'm tired of having other people go and meet and everything else. I'm the only one that's going to be able to get the deal done. 1/
Trump: Nobody uses leverage better than me. Look what I did to Iran.
Q: Why not do it with Russia?
Trump: Honestly, I will [impose sanctions], if we don’t get a deal.
This is Turkey time. 2/
Trump: Putin is tired of this whole thing. He's not looking good and he wants to look good.
Don't forget this [war] was supposed to end in one week.
If he didn't get stuck in the mud with his army tanks all over the place, they would have been in Kyiv in about 5 hours. 3/
Q: Is Putin now the obstacle to peace?
Trump: I had a real rough session with Zelensky because I didn’t like what he said.
He was not making it easy. I always said he doesn’t have the cards. You know I’m being honest. 4/
Trump: I hated to see the way it [aid to Ukraine] was pissed away. Zelensky's the greatest salesman in the world, far better than me.
Every time he comes to Washington, he walks out with 100 billion.
Now his abilities are shrinking - the last time he only got 60 billion. 5/
Trump: Putin wanted the whole thing [Ukraine]. He didn’t want a chunk. He didn’t want a peace.
Somebody said ‘Well, what do we get out of it in terms of let’s say Ukraine?’
You know what they get out of it? A large portion of the country. 6/
Trump: Putin was making a fortune out of oil. Now I have it down. So nobody's making a fortune anymore.
And it's going to go down further because I'm drill, baby, drill. 7X
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Graham: If we sell out Ukraine, Taiwan is next. If we secure guarantees that prevent a third invasion, NATO becomes bigger and stronger, and Ukraine remains free and independent.
How this war ends will shape the world for decades. 1/
Graham: I want to give Ukraine Tomahawks to hit the infrastructure Russia uses to build drones and weapons.
Change the military equation. And pass our bipartisan bill to give Trump tools to pressure countries propping up this killing machine. 2X
Zelenskyy: Putin doesn't live like ordinary people. He cannot imagine life without power. He consults Tsar Peter and Empress Catherine. He is a slave to war.
He won't let Ukraine or other European nations go. If he lives another 10 years, war can return. 1/
Zelenskyy: Putin hopes to repeat Munich 1938. It is an illusion to believe this war can be ended by dividing Ukraine, just as sacrificing Czechoslovakia didn't save Europe.
The price of a deal must not be another moment when the civilized world shifts responsibility. 2/
Zelenskyy: Ukrainians are holding the European front. Behind us stand independent Poland and the free Baltic States. There can be a sovereign Moldova and a Romania without dictatorship.
Even one Victor is growing his belly, not his army, to stop Russian tanks in Budapest. 3/
Sweden plans $5 billion aid to Ukraine in 2026. Over $12 billion pledged since 2022.
FM Maria Malmer Stenergard: "Ukraine is not only fighting for its own freedom, but also for ours. We also see Russia as a threat. This is why it is our obligation to help." — United24. 1/
Stenergard: "Me and my Finnish colleague Elina Valtonen proposed full maritime ban on Shadow Fleet. Stop imports of russian fertilizers and luxury products. It's a disgrace russians can still buy European wines and clothes. We need to hit the war economy." 2/
Sweden moved from supplying stockpiled weapons to production and now supports Ukrainian production.
Stenergard: "Ukraine became so good at production, invention, and development. It's something we could also learn from. This is also an investment in our military." 3/
Chinese FM Wang Yi on Ukraine: Europe should not be on the menu, but at the table.
The war is in Europe — Europeans have every right to be at the negotiating table.
Beijing supports Europe talking to Russia.
1/
Wang Yi: I do not believe that the situation in the Asia-Pacific is becoming increasingly tense.
In fact, Asia is probably the only region that maintains overall peace.
2/
Wang Yi: The Japanese PM said a Taiwan contingency could trigger collective self-defense. This is the first time in 80 years that a Japanese leader has made such remarks.
It violates China’s territorial sovereignty and Japan’s commitments to China.
Rubio: We want Europe to be strong. Our destinies are intertwined. The great wars of the last century proved that Europe’s fate is never irrelevant to America’s own.
The fundamental question is: what exactly are we defending? 1/
Rubio: For us Americans, our home may be in the Western Hemisphere. But we will always be a child of Europe.
Together, we rebuilt a shattered continent in the wake of two devastating world wars. The free West linked arms to defeat Soviet communism. 2/
Rubio: The UN has tremendous potential, yet on the most pressing matters it had no answers and played virtually no role.
It could not solve Gaza. It could not solve Ukraine. It took American leadership to free captives and bring adversaries to the table. 3/